Celebes

Celebes, the third largest island of the Indian Archipelago, has Borneo on the W., and the Moluccas on the E. Covering an area of about 70,000 square miles, it practically consists of four long mountainous peninsulas, running easterly and southerly and enclosing three gulfs, Gorontalo, Tolo, and Boni, and no part of the island is more than 50 miles from the sea. There are several active volcanoes, especially in the north. In the south and east are wide forests and grassy plains. It is plentifully supplied with lakes, and though its streams are numerous none of them are of any magnitude. Among its products are gold, copper, tin, sulphur, diamonds, iron, and salt. It yields tea, coffee, rice, sugar, tobacco, pepper, cloves, nutmegs, indigo, areca, betel, and various woods and oils. Trepang and turtle are extensively caught. It has also various species of animal peculiar to the island - a tailless baboon, the babiroussa (q.v.), starlings, and magpies. It is without representatives of the feline or canine animals or insectivora. Though there are numerous small native states on the island, it is practically a Dutch possession. It was taken by the British in 1811, but a few years later they returned it to the Dutch, whose connection with it dates from 1660.